Comox Valley Social Planning Society


August 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to the Social Planning Society’s 2025 Summer Newsletter! Hope you enjoy
this summary of some of our activities and events that we encourage you to attend. 
 

Comox Valley Poverty Walk  

The Social Planning Society is one of the local organizations in Thriving Together, a community-based collective impact group of community members and representatives from local organizations and government. They all share a vision of Comox Valley as a healthy, thriving, resilient community where the root causes of poverty are eliminated.

From August through October, Thriving Together is hosting a Poverty Data Walk of posters at various indoor and outdoor locations in the Comox Valley. The Data Walk also aims to inform, create conversation and encourage community members to explore ways of reducing and eliminating poverty in the region. The posters share information on poverty-related topics such as access to affordable childcare, risk of being unhoused, living wage, food insecurity and more. Each poster has options for ways that participants can share their reactions and thoughts about the data. In addition to indoor and outdoor posters, there is also a virtual data walk. The full list of locations where you will find posters along with the virtual data walk is available at: 
https://engagecomoxvalley.ca/povertyreduction.

Please look for the posters, provide your feedback and have conversations with friends and families!
 

Comox Valley PRIDE 2025 

There are lots of PRIDE 2025 activities in the Comox Valley from August 21-24! Join the Social Planning Society and our community to celebrate at Pride in the Park on Aug. 23 at Lewis Park from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. Pride in the Park, is a free, all-ages event celebrating queer life, diversity, and joy with plenty for folks to do and enjoy. Kid friendly activities included! Several food trucks will be available for attendees to visit as well. Don’t miss out on the glamorous lineup of performers that are eager to entertain you at the main stage.

In addition to Pride in the Park there are multiple events including a Pride Parade just before Pride in the Park over the 4 day celebration – come out and celebrate!
 

Phase 2 Equity Project is Complete!

We released the Comox Valley Equity Guide (Equity Phase 2) at our Annual General meeting in May. The guide is Phase 2 of our Equity Project after the Community Workshop in Phase One. Please review the guide and listen to the ideas from people in our community who are developing policy and doing projects through an equity lens! The more equitable our community is the healthier we will all be!
 

Our Access Audit Project is Busy!

In partnership with the Regional Accessibility Committee, Social Planning and Research Council of BC (SPARC BC) and the CV Community Health Network, the Comox Valley Social Planning Society began an Access Audit Project in the spring of 2023. The purpose of the project is to:

  • engage community members and people with lived experience of disability in planning for the audit and doing the audit.
  • demonstrate the value of accessibility and universal design as a benefit for all community members.
  • Identify areas/policies/processes in the CV Regional District that require modification to be a community that is accessible and inclusive.
  • create a living document/map that can be used by local government and community organizations to improve accessibility and inclusion in the Comox Valley.

After conducting 5 community conversations with people with access barriers to ask what
accessibility and inclusion meant to them, we hired and trained Auditors with accessibility
barriers and support people to conduct audit in the region. The audit is ongoing to create a map of potential accessibility barriers, and the map will be used to create more barrier free spaces.


In 2024 we partnered with SD#71, student auditors were trained, and 7 schools were audited.

This summer our Auditors are having a very busy time! Outdoor audits have continued in
Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland and 2 Auditors have travelled to Denman Island and will eventually travel to Hornby Island to do audits. Indoor audits have begun with municipal buildings, and we are making contacts with local businesses to conduct indoor audits during the winter.

The vision is that we build ongoing capacity in the community to continue to update the map and conduct more audits. The municipal governments have been provided with initial reports that will be intermittently updated as more audits are done.

A huge THANK YOU to our Auditors, their supporters and our Audit Coordinator Allisyn
Wodham. 
 

Bunny Shannon Heart of the Community Award

The 4th Annual Bunny Shannon Heart of the Community Award will be presented at our annual Brown Bag Lunch on Wednesday November 5, 2025. Nominations are open now with the deadline to submit by September 30, 2025. We look forward to your nominations!
 

The Regional Accessibility Committee will be meeting on Monday, August 25, at 3:15PM, at the Courtenay Library.

Please attend if you are interested in creating an accessible Comox Valley.

Future meetings will alternate between the Library and the I Belong Centre.
 


Please join us for our Next General Meeting 

September 2, 2025 - Courtenay Library 12 - 1 pm  
Wheelchair accessible.


CVSPS Vision

Connected people and organizations improving the quality of life of citizens in the Comox Valley by impacting social issues.

Social Planning

A process that involves local governments and community members working
together to address social issues and build healthy communities. Integrated with other types of planning, social planning focuses on the people themselves in the community planning context.
 


Be Sure to Check out our Website and Social Media